Bug Hunt
by Zalein
Summary: [Twilight Princess] Link and Midna search for Insects of Darkness in Faron Woods. A oneshot.


_Author's Note: Once upon a time I had decided to try my hand at writing up Twilight Princess in a novel form. So far it hasn't worked out—my attention span just isn't strong enough. Before I lost interest, I had gotten together a few character sheets, as well as a few ideas. This is a random write up of a random scene in the game—The Faron Woods, Link hunting the Insects of Darkness. While it's true that I played this part for reference while I wrote, hopefully this fic isn't just a write up of it._

_One of the things I was trying to make a point of in this story was how different things were to Link as a wolf. In the game, Link's transformed state isn't mentioned very often, and Link's reaction to it is mentioned even less. Here's my take on it._

_Enjoy._

_Disclaimer: I own none of the characters you have seen before today._

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"… Well?" Midna prompted impatiently. "Why are we over here! That Light Spirit said there were more bugs over that way—shouldn't we be getting these later?"

Link lowered his head to the ground, pausing briefly to sniff through his lupine nose. Lantern oil—the smell of it was in the air. It was stronger in the direction they were heading. Interesting, how it smelled just like it had smelled when he was a human. True, it was stronger now, and countless other smells were assaulting his nose, but lantern oil was lantern oil; He could recognize it.

"Haagh! Humans—I will _never_ understand them!" Midna huffed. Link paid no attention, starting his trot again.

The Faron Woods were beautiful, no matter the time of day. In the light and shadows of this permanent twilight, their beauty would have sent even a non-passionate artist scrambling for a palette and paints. Golden light trickled like water through the trees surrounding the wolf and imp. Everything seemed to have a magical glow to it, and the effect was pleasing to the eye.

Link lifted rolled his all-too-animal eyes to look around. The wolf was running through the low areas between two hills, along a trodden path that had been made by humans. He had been here before, running on two legs. Now he was on four, and he went all the faster for it.

If Link had had a choice, he would have chosen two legs.

But that wasn't important. What was important was that these forest-covered ridges had suddenly yawned into a clearing. The path running through it from beneath the wolf's paws ran past a cottage. Its door was tightly shut. Beside the cottage was what looked to be a small storage cache. If he had been human, it would have gone up to his shoulder. The dirt beside the store-bin piled up beside it like a ramp.

Link slowed his dash to a trot. His eyes swiveled back to the cottage. Pointed, sensitive ears could hear the sound of whimpering. The sound of fear…

"Hey, where's this?" Midna asked.

Link ignored her.

Breaking trot to a halting lope, he glanced around the clearing. There was a stench in the air—it was a strong stench, almost painful to his nostrils. Link walked up to the cottage. There was no way he could get in through a door—his trip to Ordon Village had told him that much. Human doors utterly defeated wolves—the lack of hands with opposable thumbs might have had something to do with it.

Link trotted towards the farther side of the cottage—maybe there was a place at the base of one of its walls where he could find a way in? He sniffed the walls, his nose close to the ground. He still wasn't finding anything.

"Hey, watch out!" Midna thudded her tiny hands to the top of Link's head, throwing her weight to the side. She kept a tight grip on his ears, and he yelped in surprise, scrambling left to keep his balance.

FFFSSHHHZZZZZZZT!

A huge insect, the source of the now almost overpowering stench, had taken to the air. Its wings sparkled in the twilight, and the sour, bitter odor in the air increased. Link growled deeply in his throat. His eyes were riveted on the bug. It crackled and sparkled with light and electricity. Link didn't look away. The first bug of this sort that he had looked away from had suddenly dived at him, and the spasming sparks of electricity had _hurt_.

Link watched the bug, still growling. The bug watched Link, still fizzling. Link prowled to the left. The bug sizzled to the right. The bug swooped towards him. Link sprang into the air, jaws open. Teeth clamped around the bug, and the electricity vanished in the bug's moment of surprise. The jaws snapped closed, and the bug died with a tortured hiss.

Link spat the bug out as well as he could. Disgusting—just disgusting… He didn't watch as a glowing sphere of blue light appeared. It floated gently in the air. The wolf shivered as the sphere rested on his face, disappearing. The golden chain of bead-like containers around his neck shuddered with him, and gave a small shimmering sound. Midna looked at the tear-container-collar, nodding in satisfaction. This had all happened before—other than the shiver, Link gave no other reaction.

Another frightened whimper reached his ears. Link lifted his head, staring straight at the cottage.

"… Say, do you think there's someone in there?" Midna suggested, looking to have heard it for the first time. "I wonder what they're frightened of. Maybe we should go and see!"

It wasn't a question. Phrases like that never were, so once again, Link ignored her. He padded around to the other side of the cottage, ignoring the door again. They needed a way in, and the door wouldn't open…

Midna saw it at the same time he did. "Look!" She grinned and pointed. "A window! Why don't we—Gegh!" She broke off. Link had swerved towards the storage cache, scrambling up the dirt to stand on it. "My my, aren't we impatient!" Midna huffed again, crossing her arms. Her annoyance left after a moment—her face cracked into another grin. "And in a hurry, too—Eeheehee!"

Link glanced over a shoulder impatiently at her. She sighed and lowered her arms, hopping into the air with that infuriating ease she seemed to do everything with. "Over here—watch for the wood's left side, there's a nail sticking out."

Link scrunched himself up for a moment, before leaping into the air. As a human he wouldn't have been able to reach the window from there—but now he had four legs, not two.

The moment he was through the window, Midna left her perch in midair and thudded back onto his back. They were inside the cottage.

There were what looked to be shawls and blankets tacked up on the walls. Were they tapestries—decoration? Or were they there to keep the cold out? Link didn't know. He had stopped worrying about the cold like he had when he was a human. After all, as a wolf he not only had an extra pair of legs, but a natural fur coat. Being cold was not a problem here—or, even, an option.

Beneath the window was the ledge that Link was standing on. It looked as though whoever lived there liked to be able to reach the window—there was an entire easy path from the floor to the ceiling made out of planks and furniture.

Link paused before going any further. On the floor in the room's opposite corner was a desk, scattered with books and papers. In fact, the papers weren't just on the desk—they were all over the floor around it, and by the floor along the walls… There were what seemed to be empty bottles hanging from the ceiling. Great for holding the oil that the cottage's owner sold.

Anything else on the floor was either out of place, or broken. There was a plank of wood that had splintered and fallen from somewhere by the desk; In the twilight's hazy glow Link couldn't tell where it had come from.

Midna shifted impatiently on his back, swinging her legs to one side, looking around. In her boredom she yawned. Loudly.

Link suppressed a sigh and began to make his way down. Once there he saw that his easy way down hadn't been made through the house's owner's preference, but was there to protect the enormous jugs and oil containers that had been stored beneath the platform. And now that he was down by the floor, he could see the room's disorder all the more clearly. The metal dishes and cook-ware was stacked up and piled on the room's crude stove near the window, and almost out of sight. Poles, more planks of wood, and a couple of overturned shelves were piled in one corner—there was also something that looked suspiciously like a fishing net. Link snorted in bored interest. The fact that there was a net here was strange, considering that the nearest body of water was a pure, clear, and utterly fishless spring.

The smell of the insects was heavy in the air, yet no bugs were out in the open. Link looked back towards the untidy desk. Midna giggled. He looked up, and she tugged the fur on one of his flanks, leaning to the side. Once again he scrambled to the side for balance—when he looked up again he was facing the corner with the fishnet in it.

"Oh look, a spirit…" She giggled lazily. "You never seem to notice them, do you…"

Link focused intently in the spirit's direction.

There it was! Standing on one of the overturned shelves--it was that man with the birds-nest hair. Link began to breath through his mouth, hoping to avoid the bug-stench that was now almost hurting his nose. The hippie couldn't see the wolf, so the fierce display of teeth wouldn't matter.

Colo—that was his name, wasn't it? Link hadn't payed much attention while buying his lantern. Colo's two human knees were trembling, and he was cowering in the corner. After another moment, the man gave another uncharacteristically high whimper, staring with frightened eyes—not at the desk, which Link had been heading towards, but at the monstrously huge jugs of oil beneath the window's 'walkway'.

After another long moment Colo mumbled something, his voice still thin, still trembling in fear. "… Sh- Shoo… g-get out, bugs… G-go on out, l-leave me alone…"

Link turned towards the jugs. He could still hear the salesman behind him muttering to himself. "M-my house… they're so _creepy_… they're…" He whimpered again.

Midna patted Link's back cheerfully, urging him on to complete his task. Link closed his mouth, breathing sharply out through his nose. Midna giggled—she knew that it bothered him when she did that. That's why she did it anyway. "Come on, doggie! We don't have foreve—Gagh!" He lunged forward, and she grabbed the fur on his flanks to keep her balance.

As though sensing his approach, two insects suddenly fshhzzz'd from their hiding place. Like the one outside, these crackled threateningly with sparks. Link dodged back—one followed him, one stayed behind and crawled up a wall.

"WHOA!! There—There they are again!! Oh man, oh man, oh man—" The salesman moaned.

Link hurled himself forward at the bug nearest to him. It skittered to the side. Electricity crackled around it, and the smell that seemed to come with it intensified in the air. Link snorted, distracted by this.

The bug scuttled forward instantly. Link heard it coming and leapt towards it, ignoring his nose. His flank crashed into it. The bug bounced away towards a wall. Link followed, going after it with his other flank. The bug hadn't regained its senses, and made a pathetic crunching noise as it was squished against the wall.

Link instantly turned his attention to the other bug, ignoring the insectoid leg that was now caught in his fur. It would be flung off if he lunged again—which he knew he would.

The bug stayed on its place on the wall. Link waited for a few moments, before darting forward and lightly head-butting the wall-space below it. The entire ramshackle house shuddered—a tinkling sound told him that shingles had fallen outside.

"WHOA!" The hippie yelped, snatching himself away from his 'safe' corner's walls.

The bug didn't fall to the floor, but it did open its wings and hover. Seeing this, Colo plastered himself against the corner again, seeming to have forgotten that the walls supposedly were dangerous to lean against.

Link ignored him. He scrambled to climb on to the desk, not caring about the papers he was scattering, or the dirty wolf paw prints he was probably leaving. The bug hovered closer—Link sprang through the air at it, locking his jaws onto something. The bug spasmed and scrambled frantically against his muzzle. His jaws clamped down. Legs twitched, and his tongue could feel moisture.

_Ew._

The hippie had similar thoughts. "Oh GROSS!! The heck!? What the heck just—Just whaaat!? Just like that, they're both dead and squished against my wall or exploding in midair—how did, what did, oh _man_ that looks so gross—"

"Squeamish, isn't he?" Midna sighed unsympathetically, patting Link's back with both hands. Link spat out the bug, trying to get himself to spit out whatever bits of it were still left in his mouth. Wolf's mouths were not made for spitting—his attempts, like all the other times, didn't work. Link growled, leaping suddenly at the furniture that led to the window. He scrambled up the planks, across the crooked wood. At the window he paused to watch Colo creep from his hiding place.

"Oh man, oh man… That was _so_ gross—where did those bugs come from, anyway?! Maybe there are more outside—Oh _man_, I am _so_ not going out there right now… maybe tomorrow… or later than that… man, oh man, oh—"

"Link, you forgot the Light Spirit's tears!" Midna pointed out. Like any other time she spoke, it was with a grin.

Link looked at the rest of the room. Two glowing spheres of light floated gently in the air, dripping light that left no moisture on the wooden floorboards. Colo didn't seem to see them—he just kept muttering to himself, staring at the bug's remains. The wolf sighed deeply, and Midna giggled again.

Not bothering to keep from stepping on any papers and leaving more (no doubt very out of place) paw prints, Link leapt down into the room, collected the spheres, and clambered back out. When he left the room, the bird's-nest-haired youth was still muttering anxiously.

"…Oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man…"


End file.
